Corn-husker.



PATENTED JAN. 21, 1908.

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PATENTED JAN. 21, 1908.

0. E. TRENT. CORN HUSKER.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE24, 1905.

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wwSSGS No. 877,143. PATENTED JAN-21, 1908. 0. E. TRENT. norm HUSKER.

APPLIUATION FILED JUNE 24, 1905.

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APPLICATION FILED JUNE 24, 1905.

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CHARLES E. TRENT, OF REDFIELD, IOWA.

CORN-HUSKER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 21, 1908.

Application filed June 24, 1905. Serial No. 266.871.

To all whom'it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES E. TRENT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Redfield, in the county of Dallas and State of Iowa, have invented a certain new and use ful Corn-I-Iusker, of which the following is a specification.

The objects of my invention are to provide a device for gathering corn from the field; that is, stripping the ears of corn from the standing stalks, allowing these cars to fall onto an elevating conveyer which carries it to husking rollers where it is husked, and the ears are then allowed to drop onto a conveyer which delivers it onto a side delivery elevating conveyer designed to deliver it into a wagon or other vehicle.

A further object is to provide a device of this class which will be of comparatively light draft and in which the rollers are so arranged and constructed that the ears of corn will be evenly stripped from the stalks and the huskingrollers so constructed with detachable bands that these rollers will husk the corn easily and the bands will also be capable of being removed, so as to be replaced by new bands having sharper teeth than the ones taken off, and thus save the necessity of removing the rollers when the teeth on the bands'need sharpening.

My invention consists in certain details in the construction, arrangement and combination of the various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained, as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a plan view of the complete machine. Fig. 2is a side elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal, sectional view of the device out between the snapping rollers and looking toward the left of the machine. Fig. 4 is a rear elevation of the device. Fig. 5 is a detail view of the lower end of one of the snapping rollers, showing the way of mounting the same at its lower end. Fig. 6 is a detail plan view of the husking rollers removed from the frame. Fig. 7 is a detail, sectional view of one ofthe detachable bands detached from the husking rollers. Fig. 8 is a detail view of one of the snapping rollers removed from the frame. Fig. 9 is a sectional View of one of the snapping rollers cuton a'line 9'9 of Fig. 8. 10 is a detail, sectional view of the lower end of the side delivery elevating conveyer. Fig. 11 is sectional view of the device, showing .the.

positioning of the rollers relative to each other and the'connection between the snapping rollers and the husking rollers, the line of section being taken on line 1212 of Fig. 1. Fig. 13 is a detail, sectional view, out on the line 1313 of Fig. 2. Fig. 14 is a detail, plan view of mechanism for feeding the stalk into the snapping rollers.

Referring, to the accompanying drawings, I have used the reference numerals 10 and 11 to indicate the traction wheels upon which the device is mounted, these wheels being the ones from which all of the mechanism is driven. These. wheels 10 and 11 support the entire mechanism. The frame of the machine comprises the two sills 12 and 13, the sill- 12 being arranged on the outside of the sill 13. There are also two sills 14 and 15, the sill 14 being outside of the traction wheel 11 and the sill 15 being on the inside of the traction. wheel. A slight distance inside of the sill 15 is a sill 16 which is connected with the sill 15 by means of the arch 17 which is designed to secure these two sills in position relative to each other and at the same time to allow the corn stalks to pass between these sills and beneath the arch 17. The

arch 17 is rigidly supported relative to the.

sill 13 by means of the brace 18, which brace extends upwardly from its point of attachment to the sill 13 and then-away from said point of attachment at substantially right angles to the body of it, a sup orting brace 3 is also interposed between sill 15 and the arch 17. The right angled extension thereof I have termed for the sake of convenience the roller supporting brace 19. There is a brace 20 which connects the up or portion of the arch 17 withthe rear enc of the sill 16, so that the rear upper end of the arch 17 is supported rigidly in position relative to this s1ll 16. The roller supporting brace 19 is connected with the brace 16 by means of an auxiliary brace 21. The brace 18 is additionally supported relative to the sill 13 by means of the brace 22. The arch 17 is also connected with the sill 13 by means of the roller supporting brace 23 which supports the lower end of the husking rollers, to be hereinafter described. The forward end. of the arch is also connected with thesill 13 by face.

means of a brace 24. Extending between the sills 12, 13, and 16 and rotatably mounted in these sills is the driving shaft 25 to which the traction wheel 10 is rigidly secured. Rotatably mounted in the sills 14 and 15 is the shaft 26 to which the traction wheel 11. is rigidly secured.

The forward ends of the sills 15 and '16 arepointed and considerably in advance of the traction wheels and they are separated a sufficientdistance to receive the stalks forming the rows of corn between them as the machine is advanced over the ground sur- Connected to; the forward portion of the sill 152 a shield 27 which is curved and which is smaller at its forward end and increases in width toward its upper end and is designed to prevent the corn being. snapped from the stalks before it reaches the snapping rollers, and then to guide the corn into. these sna ping. rollers as well asito prevent the corn t us snapped from getting into theworking parts of the device and to ervent the corn from being; delivered any W ere except to: the elevating mechanism, at the right of the snapping rollers.

' Secured to: the forward end of the sills 16 and to: the upper ortion of the arch 17 on the opposite side of the snapping rollers from the guide shield is a. guiding shield 28 constructed like the guiding shield 27 except that there is an opening 45 provided by cutting away a portion of this shield to the. right of the snapping rollers through which the ears of corn are to be fed after they have been snapped by the rollers from the stalk. At the forward end of the shield 27 is a sprocket 29'. Rotatably mounted at the upper end of the shield is a sprocket 3.0.. Passing around these. sprocket wheels 29 and is a toothed chain 31. Mounted in the lower end of the shield 28 is a sprocket Mounted in the upper end of the shield 28 is a sprocket 33'. Passing around the sprocket wheels 32 and 33 is a toothed chain 34. The tooathed chains 31 and 34 are between the surfaces. of the shields 27 and 28 which are nearest each other during a portion of their movement, and they move in thesame direction while between these shields, so as to advance the stalks of corn between these shields to: the snapping rollers, and to pick up any stalks which have been bent over as the machine is advanced over the ground surface.

Mounted on the shaft 26 and inside of the traction wheel 11 is a bevel gear 35 which isin mesh with the bevel gear 36, said bevel gear the inner end thereof is a bevel gear 39.

and 41 is a sprocket wheel 42*.

having spiraf grooves therein.

shaft 37 by means of a universal joint. Mounted on the shaft 37 is the sprocket This sprocket wheel 38 is designed for as the traction wheel is rotated, the gears 35 and 36 will be rotated to drive the shaft 37 and the sprocket wheel 38.

Mounted on the shaft 25 and adjacent {so :n front of the shaft 25- is a shaft 39 which drives the elevating conveyor, as hereinafter set forth. Mounted at the inner end of this shaft 3-9 is a bevel gear 40'. In mesh with the bevel gear 40 is a bevel gear 40, which bevel gear is secured to the lower end of the shaft 41, said shaft 41 having a shaft 41 secured to its upper end by a universal joint. The shaft 41*" has mounted on it the sprocket wheel 41 which drives the-toothedchain 3 4 as the machine is advanced over the ground surface. Mounted oneach of the shafts 37 a At the rear of each of the sprocket wheels 42' is a sprocket wheel 42 which are rotatably mounted above the sills 15 and 16. Passing around each pair of sprocket wheels 42 and 42 is a toothed chain 42, which chains are immediately above the sills 15 and 16 and. are designed to advance the corn stalks and feed them to the roller as the machine is ad.

vanced over the ground surface. Thus as the machine is advanced, both of the chains- 31 and 34 are operated and driven in opposite directions to cause the stalks passing between the shields 27 and 28 to be picked up by them and advanced rearwardly between these shields.

Mounted at the lower end of the arch 17 and extending inwardly from the sills 15: and 16 are the boxings 43 and 44 respectively. Attached to and extending forwardly from the upper end of the arch 17 is a boxing; 45. Rotatab'ly mounted in the boxings 44 and 45 is the snapping roller 47 designed to coact with the snapping roller 46 in operation. The snapping roller 47 is maintained in position relative to the snapping roller 46 by means of the spring 48 which is mounted in the boxing 45 and by the spring 49in the boxing 43'. On account of the springs being mounted in this way, the roller 47 is capable of be ing moved toward or away from the roller 46. Each of these rollers has a tapered end 1 have designated this lower end by the numeral Throughout the entire length of each of these snapping rollers is a spiral member 51 shown clearly in Fig. 8 of the drawings, and which, are designed to assist in snapping the ears from the stalk and in working the stalk. between the rollers. At the upper rear end of the roller 47 is a gear 52 which is in mesh with the gear 53 on the upper rear end of the roller 46. This gear 53 is in mesh with a gear 54 which is attached securely to the rotatabiy mounted shaft 55. This shaft 55 has mounted at its lower end a bevel gear 56 in mesh with the gear 39 which drives it to rotate the snap ping rollers in opposite directions, for the purposes above mentioned. At the rear end above the roller 46 an aperture 45 has been provided in the shield 28 to allow the corn as it is snapped from the stalk to fall upon an inclined plate 57 which is secured at its upper side to the arch and at its lower side to the supporting brace 19 and the roller supporting brace 23. Pivotally attached to the central portion of the inclined plate 57 and extending longitudinally of it is a plate 58 which is designed to feed the corn, which has been snapped by the rollers, and fed onto the plate 57 to the elevating conveyer 59 which passes around the roller 60 at the upper end of the conveyer frame 61, and also around the roller 62 at the lower end of the conveyer frame. This roller 62 is also supported by means of the bracket 63, which bracket supports the lower end of the conveyer frame 61. The roller 62 also has mounted on that end of it which is adjacent to the traction wheel 10 and between said traction wheel and the bracket 63 a gear 64, which gear is in mesh with the gear on the driving shaft 25, so that as the driving shaft 25 is operated, the elevating conveyer will be driven and will cause the ears of corn delivered onto it from the snapping rollers over the inclined plate 57 and the pivoted plate 58 to be elevated to a point of discharge above the husking rollers to be referred to.

The rear upper end of the conveyer frame 61 is supported by means of the roller suporting brace 19 upon which it rests. At the ower end, above the conveyer and at right angles to the shield 28 I have provided an inclined plate 65 having a hinged portion 65 at its lower side. This plate is designed to prevent the snapped corn from falling off the lower end of the conveyer 59, except when it is desired to load the snapped corn into the wagon without husking it. These last re; sults are accomplished by swinging the lower plate 65 upwardly until it falls upon the plate 65 The gear 64 is then removed from the roller 62. This stops the conveyer 59 and allows the snapped corn that falls upon it to pass under the plate 65' and over the lower end of the conveyer 59 without passing over the husking rollers.

Rotatably mounted between the roller supporting braces 19 and 23 are two pairs of husking rollers, the right pair of husking rollers being designated by the numerals 66 and 67 and the left pair being designated by the numerals 68 and 69. The outside rollers 66 and 69 are springingly maintained to allow the slight movement away from their mating rollers. On the upper ends of the rollers 66 and 67 I have provided two gears 70 and 71 in. mesh with each other. On the upper ends of the rollers 68 and 69 I have provided the gears 72 and 73 in mesh with each other.

The gears 71 and 72 are in mesh with each other'and are so arranged that as any of the gears 70, 71, 72, and 73 are operated, all of them will be operated and will rotate one of the rollers in each pair of rollers in an opposite direction from its mating roller. In mesh with the gear 7 O is a gear 75, and this gear 75 is secured to the upper end of the rotatably mounted shaft 76, said shaft having the bevel gear 77 at its lower end in mesh with the bevel gear 78 on that portion of the driving shaft 25 which is adjacent to the sill 13, so that as the driving shaft is operated, the husking rollers will be driven. One of the husking rollers in each pair has in it two grooves 79 and 80 and a detachable rasping band 81 secured thereto midway betweenits ends. The other mating roller of each pair has two detachable rasping bands 82 and 83 which operate in the grooves 79 and 80 respectively, and also has a groove 84 in which the rasping band 81 is designed to operate so that as each air of these rollers are operated, the husks of corn will be severed from the ears by means of the rasping surfaces on these detachable bands as they are operated in conjunction with the rollers. These bands 81, 82 and 83 are detachably connected with the rollers to which they are designed to be used, so that they can be easily removed by the operator and replaced by new ones as soon as they have become worn, and thus avoid the necessity of replacing the entire roller as is customary at the present time when these rasping surfaces have lost their effectiveness.

As soon as the husks have been severed by the husking rollers from the ears, these ears will fall upon the carrier 85, which is driven from the shaft 25 and which carrier conveys these cars to the side delivery elevator 86, which elevator is made in the ordinary way, is secured to the sill 13 by means of the bolt 86 and to the sill 16 by means of the brace 86 the outer end of the elevator is supported bymeans of the rod 87 and is driven by a shaft 39 which is driven from the shaft 25. The lower end of the carrier of this elevator 86 runs in a horizontal plane a slight distance and then in an elevated manner to the point of discharge as shown in Fig. 10. The carrier and the elevator 86 are driven from the driving shaft 25 by means of chains and gearing.

Pivotally secured to the forward end of the sills 12 and 13 is the ordinary tongue 37*. Pivotally attached to the side of the sill 12 is the lever 88, which lever is pivotally attached to a bar 89 that is attached at its,

forward end to the lug 90 on the rear end of'the tongue, so that as the upper end of the lever is swung forwardly or rearwardly, the

to the tongue, and that the row of corn is being fed between the guide shields 27 and 28 by the toothed chains 31. and 34 to the snapping rollers, where these rollers sever the corn from the stalks, then the corn will fall upon'the inclined plate 57, over the pivoted plate 58 and onto the elevating conveyer 59 which delivers the corn with the husks still on, onto the husking rollers where the husks are removed and the ears of corn are allowed to drop onto the'carrier 85 by which carrier the ears are advanced, and delivered onto the elevating conveyer 86 which delivers them into a wagon driven at the side of the device, the wagon being advanced at the same rate as this device.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, therefor is:

1. In a device of the class described, a pair of snapping rollers designed to coact with each other, a tapered spiral lower end 'on each snapping roller, a spiral member encircling each of the rollers for advancing the stalks of corn fed between them, means for springingly maintaining one of the rollers in osition relative to the other, a pair of guiding shields mounted above and in front of the snapping rollers, a toothed chain in each shield designed to advance the stalks of corn between the guiding shields, traction wheels for rotating said rollers and said toothed chains in opposite directions, and an inclined plate at one side, of the snapping rollers designed to receive the ears of corn snapped by the rollers and permit them to slide over it to a point of discharge.

2. In a device of theclass described, a pair of snapping rollers designed to coact with each other, a tapered spiral lower end on each snapping roller, a spiral member encircling each of the rollers for advancing the stalks of corn fed between them, means for springingly maintaining one of the rollers in osition relative to the other, a pair of guiding shields mounted above and in front of the snapping rollers, a toothed chain in each shield designed to advance the stalks of corn between the guiding shields, traction wheels for rotating said rollers and said toothed chains in opposite directions, an inclined plate at one s1de of the snapping rollers designed to receive the ears of corn snapped by the rollers and,

permit them to slide over it to a point of discharge, and a conveyer to receive the ears of corn from the inclined plate and designed to deliver the corn thus received at its upper rear end.

In a device of the class described, a pair of snapping rollers designed to coact with each other, a tapered spiral lower end on each snapping roller, a s iral member encircling each of the rollers for advancing the stalks of corn fed between them, means for springingly maintaining one of the rollers in position relative to the other, a pair of guiding shields mounted above and in front of the snapping rollers, a toothed chain in eachshield designed to advance the stalks of corn between the guiding shields, traction wheels for rotating said rollers and said toothed chains in opposite directions, an inclined plate at one side of the sna ping rollers designed to receive the ears of corn snapped by the rollers and veyer to receive the ears of corn fromthe inclined plate and designed to deliver the corn thus received at its upper rear end, and a pivoted plate secured to the central portion permit them to slide over it to a point of discharge, a 0011- of the inclined plate and designed to rest upon said conveyer. I

4. In a device of the class described, a pair of snapping rollers designed to coact with each. other, a tapered spiral lower end on each snapping roller, a spiral member encircling each of the rollers for advancing the stalks of corn fed between them, means for springingly maintaining one of the rollers in position relative to the other, a pair of guiding shields mounted above and in front of the snapping rollers, a toothed chain in each shield designed to advance the stalks i of corn between the guiding shields, tract-ion wheels for rotating said rollers and said toothed chains in opposite directions, an inclined plate at one side of the snapping rollers designed to receive the ears of corn snapped by the rollers and permit them to slide over it to a point of discharge, a conveyer to receive the ears of corn from the inclined plate and designed to deliver the corn thus received at its upper rear end, and

two pairs of husking rollers mounted partially beneath and behind the delivery end of said conveyer for husking the ears of corn Q delivered upon it.

5. In a device of the class described, a pair of snapping rollers designed to coact with each other, a tapered spiral lower end on each snapping roller, a spiral member encircling each of the rollers for advancing the stalks of corn fed between them, means for springingly maintaining one of the rollers in position relative to the other, a pair of guiding shields mounted above and in front of the snapping rollers, a toothed chain in each shield designed to advance the stalks of corn between the guiding shields, traction wheels for rotating said rollers and said toothed chains in opposite directions, an inclined plate at one side of the snapping rollers designed to receive the ears of corn snapped by the rollers and permit them to slide over it to a point of discharge, a conveyer to receive the ears of corn from the inclined plate and designed to deliver the corn thus received at its upper rearend, a pivoted plate secured to the central portion of the inclined plate and designed to rest upon said conveyer, and two pairs of husking rollers mounted partially beneath and behind the delivery end of said conveyer for husking the ears of corn delivered upon it.

6. In a device of the class described, a pair of snapping rollers designed to coact with each other, a tapered spiral lower end on each snapping roller, a spiral member encircling each of the rollers for advancingthe stalks of corn fed between them, means for springingly maintaining one of the rollers in position relative to the other, a pair of guiding shields mounted above and in front of the snapping rollers, a toothed chain in each shield designed to advance the stalks of corn between the guiding shields, traction wheels for rotating said rollers and said toothed chains in opposite directions, an inclined plate at one side of the snapping rollers designed to receive the ears of corn snapped by the rollers and permit them to slide over it to a point of discharge, a conveyer to receive the ears of corn from the inclined plate and designed to deliver the corn thus received at its upper rear end, two pairs of husking rollers mounted partially beneath and behind the delivery end of said conveyer for husking the ears of corn delivered upon it, a carrier to advance the ears of corn from the husking rollers to apoint of discharge, and a side delivery conveyer to receive the corn from said carrier and deliver it to a point of discharge at a point outside of one of the traction wheels.

7. In a device of the class described, a pair of snapping rollers designed to coact with each other, a tapered spiral lower end on each snapping roller, a spiral member encircling each of the rollers for advancing the stalks of corn fed between them, means for springingly maintaining one of the rollers in position relative to the other, a pair of guiding shields mounted above and in front of the snapping rollers, a toothed chain in each shield designed to advance the stalks of corn between the guiding shields, traction wheels for rotating said rollers and said toothed chains in opposite directions, an inclined plate at one side of the snapping rollers designed to receive the ears of corn snapped by the rollers and permit them to slide over it to a point of discharge, a conveyer to receive the ears of corn from the inclined plate and designed to deliver the corn thus received at its upper rear end, a pivoted plate secured to the central portion of the inclined plate and designed to rest upon said conveyer, two pairs of husking rollers mounted partially beneath and behind the delivery end of said conveyer for husking the ears of corn delivered upon it, a carrier to advance the ears of corn from the snapping rollers to a point of discharge, and a side delivery conveyer to receive the corn from said carrier and deliver it to a point of discharge at a point outside of one of the traction wheels.

CHARLES E. TRENT.

Witnesses GEO. A. CRANE, HUGH RODDAN. 

